2015 participants in the Chairs Circle. Back, lefto to right: Kelly Robinson, Barb Currie, Dianne Porter, Colleen MacQuarrie. Front, left to right: Anne Nicholson, Eileen Brown Wilt, and Sharon O’Brien
In 2012, the Council’s Executive Director Lisa Murphy initiated an annual consultation for the past Chairpersons of the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Each year since, we have invited past Chairs together and the current Chairperson has brought the knowledge, experience, and wisdom of past Chairpersons into our work. For many years, the gathering was called our “Chairs Circle.”
Ten years ago, in 2015, Chairperson Kelly Robinson invited the Chairs Circle together when she took on the role of Council Chair following the death of Diane Kays. The past Chairpersons that year created together a couple of graphic representation of themes and progress for gender equality. Program Coordinator Michelle Jay captured notes from discussion of the interrelated themes of Poverty, Health, Justice, and Violence for women’s equality.
From these notes, the past Chairs gave their assessment of “What do we know is already in place?” for women’s equality in PEI, and “What needs to be added … to complete the puzzle?” These were presented as a puzzle graphic, which you can see above.
What they said was in place in 2015:
- arms-length structures: ACSW (Advisory Council on the Status of Women)
- strong women’s NGOs (non-governmental organizations): Women’s Network, EPWIC (East Prince Women’s Information Centre), AWA (Aboriginal Women’s Association), Women in Government
- government structures: Interministerial Women’s Secretariat
- strong community NGOs: CLIA (Community Legal Information), Cooper Institute, FVPS (Family Violence Prevention Services), WGLI (Working Group for a Livable Income)
- population recognizing women’s needs
- Leaders’ Forum on Women’s Issues
- youth identifying as feminist (increasing)
- ACSW Chairs Circle
- early childhood centres
- more women aware!
- engaged community
- PAP clinics
- voting with pro-woman parties & policies
Some of what they identified as needing to be added to the puzzle included these items:
- more resources and support for structures in place
- proper funding for NGOs — essential services
- FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) education and prevention
- safe, supportive, and welcoming communities for Aboriginal women and families
- hearing women’s kitchen-table wisdom
- women’s homeless shelter
- identify white privilege connected to racism, poverty, and injustice
- address poverty (basic income guarantee pilot project)
- less disconnect among government agencies
- access to child care subsidies, esp for education
- proportional representation
- women’s health centre: info and access for reproductive health
- mandate and recruit women for gender parity – ABCs (agencies, boards, and commissions), deputy ministers, candidates
- action on MMIW (missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls)
- child advocate for PEI
Some of the important cultural and societal factors for putting the remaining pieces together were represented in words such as these:
diverse, intersectional, inclusive, rights, positive images in media, engaged and active men, gender analysis, more research, people with intellectual disabilities, people of colour, acknowledge backlash
In 2025, some of the pieces the Chairs Circle identified have definitely been added to the puzzle. For example, we have transitional and/or emergency shelters for homeless women (Blooming House, LifeHouse, Chief Mary Bernard Memorial Shelter), a child and youth advocate for PEI, and information and access for reproductive health (through SHORS). Many other puzzle pieces are in progress, but there has been identifiable progress.
It is interesting to consider what a puzzle graphic like the one above might look like today.
In late 2023, we passed the “Chairs Circle” name and the logo created by Lisa Murphy along to a new group, formed by past Chairpersons of the Council, Women’s Network, and the Coalition for Women’s Leadership. Today, the Chairs Circle for Gender Equality is working to support the long-term sustainability of intersectional feminist organizations in PEI. https://ccgepei.wixsite.com/chairs-circle
